Surrey Homes | SH62 | December 2019 | Guide to Christmas supplement inside

Beauty
Shine Bright
like a Diamond
Sparkle like a grown-up with Jo Fairley’s tips
for applying shimmering festive party make-up
Charlotte Tilbury
Hollywood Flawless
Filter, £34 for 30ml
charlottetilbury.com
There is a difference between sparkle, shimmer and
glitter. The latter is for Elton John and under-sevens.
The former, however, can be incredibly flattering
for faces of uncertain age, shall we say. It’s often drummed
into us that we shouldn’t gleam but, in fact, the judicious
positioning of light on a face can be super-flattering,
making us look lit from within. (Caravaggio, Vermeer
and John Singer Sargent certainly knew all about that.)
I understand why you might run scared from gleam
and glimmer. All those beauty editors’ lectures (from
people like me) about ‘not applying shimmer to wrinkles
or it makes them look worse!’ And it does: avoid the
crease of the eye, at pretty much any age, with shimmer.
But elsewhere...? Here’s what I know about shimmering,
without looking like the fairy on the Christmas tree.
A gleaming primer can really awaken the face. Primers
are applied before your foundation, of course,
and serve two purposes. First is to help your
make-up to stay put longer – and almost
magically they do. But at the same time, they
can colour-correct, eliminating redness (the new
Daniel Sandler Anti-Redness Foundation Primer,
£24.50 for 30ml, is excellent for that).
But in this instance, we’re talking
about primers that also add a fine
veil of halo-like gleam underneath
your usual more velvety or matte foundation.
There are two particular glow-getting
primers that I recommend:
Nars Radiance
Primer, £29 for 30ml, is amazing for
smoothing out the face and adding subtle
radiance.
Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood
Flawless Filter, £34 for 30ml,
meanwhile, promises ‘superstarlit’
skin and has more gleam, but
offers the advantage of coming
in seven different shades, acting
like a filter on your skin. I
Chanel
Rouge Allure
Ink Matte Liquid
Lip Colour range,
£31 each
chanel.com
“Don’t go for it
the first time as
you’re prepping
for a big event.
Have a play
beforehand”
like it as a primer, but you can also add a touch or two to
your regular foundation to ramp up the face-lighting factor
– alternatively, dab it over your foundation as a highlighter,
though you’d want to practise this to get it right. (And I can’t
recommend too highly that you nip to your chosen brand’s
nearest counter to have either of these demo-ed on you and
see with your own eyes how they create a sort of ‘halo’ effect.)
My one caveat? If you already use a ‘radiant’ foundation
featuring light-reflective pigments, this is probably
overkill, and you could end up looking sweatily shiny.
Up the wattage of your eyes. This does not mean
applying a shimmery shadow all over your lids, sockets
and brow-bone, as a particular four-year-old in my life
loves to do. It means the merest whisper, to open the eyes.
Sometimes I remind myself of the astonishing power of this
by applying my regular taupe-to-brown eyeshadow look
without adding a final gleaming touch. It
looks fine. But then that dab of shimmer –
and hey, presto! Instantly younger and more
‘alive’. (Such are the miracles of make-up...)
Glimmering ivory, rose gold, silver or
white will perform the same job – and
powder products are easier, here; with
liquid or cream shadows, it’s easy to get too
much from the dispenser and be tempted
to slap it on rather than waste it. Although
I generally discard the applicator that comes with most
eyeshadows, the little sponge-tipped wand in mirror-lidded
Chanel Ombre Première Longwear Powder Eyeshadow, £26
(mine is shade 10 Flesh). More affordably, check out the
completely wonderful Bourjois Little Round Pots, £5.49, in
Generose or Ingenude – or use that shimmering shadow
in the corner of a palette you already own, which you’ve
been avoiding like the plague. (Having said that, my
Ombre Première is going strong two years in, although I
do consider it right up there with the loaves and fishes that
I’ve managed to hang onto the applicator for that long.)
But again, the golden (literally) rule with party make-
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